In a Pool of Blood
by speakingintothevoid
Summary: Wolfgang and Will each experience menstrual cramps in very different situations. Will/Riley fluffy humor, Wolfgang/Kala fluffy angst, Cluster adorableness
1. Chapter 1

Will jerked awake with a muffled cry. He pressed his fists into his stomach and curled over as a wave of acid heat shot through his torso. He cried out again and threw the blanket off himself, fingers desperately fumbling to find the source of the stabbing pain. Riley awoke at once and grabbed for his shoulders, still giddy with sleep, "Will!" she cried. "Will, what's wrong?"

He tried to answer her, but another rough cry escaped him. The pain was so real, crashing over him in irregular bursts of agony, but there was no source: no blood or wound. His sleep-muddled brain wasted precious seconds as it tried to process this experience and the two of them stumbled onto the answer at once. "Will!" Riley exclaimed again, hanging loosely over his shoulder and they locked wild eyes.

"Somebody's been stabbed," he exclaimed breathlessly, at almost the same moment. He threw the sheet off himself and sprang out of bed, his hero complex fully activated as he imagined one of his cluster lying in a pool of blood. Almost immediately he doubled over again in pain.

"Riley," he gasped, looking back at the girl still curled in a puddle of sheets who was suddenly looking at him with a strange expression. "Riley, we have to – " he cut off as she suddenly exploded in a gale of laughter. In all the time he had known her, he had never seen her laugh this hard. She rocked back and forth on the bed, gasping through her giggles in a way he would have found endearing at any other moment. He stumbled back to her side and put a baffled arm around her shoulders. "Riley, please, what's going on?"

After several false pauses, she finally gained control of her mirth and put her little hands up on either side of her boyfriend's face. Tears still in her eyes, she said, "Will, nobody's been stabbed. This is nothing an ibuprofen won't fix."

"What?" he gasped.

"I'll go and get some now, but I'm warning you, it will still take a few minutes to take effect." Her face squinched up in laughter again as she watched the realization dawn on his face.

"This is what it's like for you? Are you serious? This is cramps?" Will asked, looking slowly from his torso to her own.

She slid neatly out of bed, dainty and glowing in his t-shirt. "I will fix it for you in just a minute," she promised, hurrying to the bathroom while still choking on giggles.

He folded his hands on his torso and leaned gingerly back on the headboard, wincing as the heat stabbed through him again. She came out, swallowing down a couple of pills, and grinned endearingly at the man. "This should take about twenty minutes," she said, curling up next to him again.

"It feels like an angry gerbil has gotten inside of me and is just shredding everything," Will said, gazing down at his stomach in something akin to awe. "This is what you deal with every month?"

She shrugged. "Sometimes it's better, sometimes it's worse. You never know what you're gonna get!" She laughed again, quietly. "You thought you had been stabbed!"

"Well, yeah," he murmured, gazing down at her in wonder. "Women are incredible. You didn't even wake up!"

"I would have soon," she explained, already sounding sleepy again. "I guess your body's just not used to it."

Even though Riley explained that the pain only lasted for the first few hours, Will treated her like a queen for a solid week. He lavished her with gifts and attention and watched her continue about her life with eyes so wide they were almost worshipful.

At the next cluster gathering at Lito and Hernando's apartment, Nomi mentioned this. "Did something happen between you two?" she asked, watching Will curiously. "I mean, you guys have always been cute, but he keeps looking at you like you took a bullet for him or something."

Riley tried to smother a giggle with her hand. "The pain of my cramps transferred to him one night. He thought one of you had been stabbed."

Sun grinned. "Lito ended up with some of my PMS before either of us knew what was going on yet. He did not handle it gracefully."

The movie star looked up from where he was tucked into the couch with Hernando. "I did not!" he agreed with some pride. "I was sure I was going to die!"

"I was sure he had started doing meth," his boyfriend stated wryly. "He lost his mind."

"It is a side effect I would not have anticipated," Lito hummed affectionately. "But it seems logical. I am only glad it has not happened to me again."

Kala wandered up, sipping an iced tea. "What side effect has not happened to you again?"

Nomi laughed. "Apparently several of the guys are experiencing 'women's issues' for the first time by telepathic transfer."

Kala's cheeks turned bright red and her eyes jumped across to Wolfgang, who stood slightly apart from the group in conversation with Will, but he seemed instantly aware of the discussion as well and looked acutely uncomfortable, meeting her eyes for a minute before dropping them swiftly.

"Hold up, what is this?" Amanita's sharp eyes missed nothing and she jumped off Nomi's lap with excitement. "This looks like a story that needs to be shared!"

"Yeah, seriously." Will looked happy to have the conversation shifted from himself. "What could possibly embarrass our perpetually nude German?"

Wolfgang smiled slowly and raised his eyes to Kala's with a small shrug.

"I do not want to tell it!" she exclaimed, cheeks reddening even more as the eyes of the room shifted to her. "Or, anyway, he does not want me to say."

"You may say what you like," Wolfgang replied, raising his chin defiantly. "It does not shame me."

"That doesn't seem to be the case," Capheus chimed in teasingly as he glanced happily at Amanita. The two of them had been shipping 'Kalagang' shamelessly from the moment they met, since the tension between the German and Indian had been almost unbearable since Riley's release.

"Yeah, I didn't know the two of you were hanging out alone," Amanita agreed, watching them with an eager grin and ignoring Nomi's unsubtle warning cough.

"We – we weren't 'hanging out'," Kala began hesitantly, avoiding Wolfgang's eyes as she looked at the floor, still slightly flushed. "That is – I was in my bed." She missed Capheus and Amanita's significant glance, but Wolfgang did not. "And all of the sudden, he just showed up."

Kala was dreaming of him again. It was one of those golden dreams that filled her head every few nights. They were walking through a small garden near her father's house, a place that only existed in sleep. The dream was simple, and redundant: filled with the warm haze of an Indian summer, and dotted with pinky flowers and green buds. They walked side-by-side; she talked with animation and he watched her with that wide-open expression that his face took on only for her. As they walked, his shoulder kept bumping her and when she looked up at him to apologize, he pushed his shoulder back into hers and took her hand, folding their fingers together. She looked down at their hands in surprise and when she looked back up with a question, he gently leaned down and took her lips with his own.

Kala hated the dream. She woke up each time with a warmth bubbling in her chest, giddy and glowing, to find her fingers empty and her lips cold. The image was replaced instantly with the memory the chilled, sour air of Berlin, the chattering of guns, a cold floor beneath her feet and a colder look in the eyes of the man as he told her he was a monster. A family-killer.

But on the night when he finally appeared to her, she was still caught up in the rose-gold of the dream. "Kala!" her name, spoken sharply and in urgency, cut through the dream, the man's actual voice interrupting that of his image. She lay tossing on the bed, murmuring in her sleep, her thick soft curls splayed out on the pillow exactly as he had so often imagined it. Her sticky eyes blinked open at his voice and she saw him for one second standing at the foot of her bed, naked again and with panic stamped on his face.

"Kala!" he choked out again, and ran for her, falling on his knees by her bed and lifting a hand to cup her chin. "What's wrong?"

"Wolfgang," she said groggily, baffled by the suddenness of her transition from dream to reality, by his sudden nearness, and she heedlessly echoed him. "Wha – what's wrong?"

He pulled himself back slightly, but kept his hand on her face. "I came to ask you – you are in pain!"

"What?" She pulled herself up slightly on her pillows, unable to pull her eyes away from his face.

"Y-you are in pain," he repeated, his own voice thick with sleep interrupted. "I felt it, I thought something had happened. Was it not you?"

Kala's mind snapped into the present as she understood and her hand dropped to her stomach. "I am in pain, yes, but I have not been hurt. Are you alright?" she asked in concern as his mouth clenched hard.

"Is this your pain?" he asked, looking up in surprise. "You do not seem to feel it."

She laughed quietly, laughing in humor at the moment and in bitterness as she realized the transience of it. He would leave as soon as he understood. "I am used to it, Wolfgang. It is only cramps such as I have every month. I will survive, but you seem to be in real pain. Please, let me help you!"

"You are alright?" he asked, earnestly, and in that moment she felt the depth of the fear he had felt for her and her whole body gentled.

"Yes, I am quite well," she said calmly. "But – "

He stood immediately, looking slightly flushed either at his mistake or his reaction. "I will go-"

"Wolfgang!"

He looked up and she stood before him, so real and human, sunlight that was also fire, gentleness and ferocity tangled in her being. He saw her again as she was the night she saved him, on her knees in the kitchen, her untrembling fingers knitting together the bomb that would kill a man and save his life, and he remembered the softness of her lips under his.

"Wolfgang, please. Please, you must speak to me."

She was asking him for all that he wanted and it was too much. He should not have come. As he vanished from her sight, he felt the wave of her anger and confusion and the wildness of her grief.

"Wolfgang felt my cramps one night and he thought I had been stabbed. He came to check on me, very concerned. Men are too surprised to learn that we too feel pain, are they not?" Kala's words came out in a rush, condensing the moment into two sentences that remained packed with meaning to the group listening quietly in the room. The implications of the last statement were lost on no one. Her eyes lit up suddenly in a warm halo of tears and she turned quickly and fled the room.


	2. Chapter 2

div class="userstuff module" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; width: 1088.64px; float: none; word-wrap: break-word; color: #2a2a2a;"  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Wolfgang stood still in the corner of the room, his fist clenched as tight as his jaw, and looked at no one. Everyone looked at him. Nomi's mouth was open in sympathy, Amanita's in outrage./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""Well, go after her!" Amanita exclaimed after a grating moment./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"No one said anything else or moved, his pain wrenched all the Sensates and kept them still, observing his struggle in silence./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"He made as though to move towards the door and then caught himself, turned in a sharp circle like an indecisive dog, and then lunged through the door again./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"The remainder of the room looked at each other in wonder, Will dropped a kiss onto Riley's shoulder./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Hernando seemed to share an opinion with Amanita. "If he wants her," he announced in a heavy voice, getting up to be a host again. "He's going to have to make an effort."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"-/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Kala sat, picturesque, in a window, the light fanning over her shoulders and tossing in her curls. Wolfgang closed the door behind him as he entered: an old habit of an old life where privacy had been a possibility. Seeing her did nothing to relieve his mind, and she let him stand by the door for several minutes before she turned abruptly. "Come and sit down," she commanded, in a dry and even voice./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"He started at her voice but came obediently and sat next to her on the couch, keeping an obvious and discreet distance between them./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Kala turned her face away and stared over the beauties of Mexico City. "I dream about you. Almost every night. Did you know that?"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"He said nothing and watched her. Conversation billowed up again in the next room./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""Science cannot yet tell us if we dream of things that we repress or of things that we obsess over. It seems like a very strong distinction. Maybe it is not."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"He puckered his mouth and glared at his knuckles, bound tightly in each other between his knees./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""Wolfgang." The name was a caress, and he looked up instinctively. She did not look like a girl who had been recently crying. She was maternal and beautiful and in control, he knew, of both of them. "You said I must stay away from you because you are monstrous. But I do not think that you understand. We are the same. As Will says, we have the same mind in many bodies. If you consider yourself to be a monster, what can you consider me?"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"The accusation opened his lips instantly. "You are not a monster," he protested instantly./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""But we are the same!" she explained./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"He shook his head, seeming to struggle to clear his voice before he would let himself speak. "We were the same. Perhaps we were born at the same moment, perhaps we had the same mind then. But there is no morality in that, in the way we were born. You have done good things with that. But I… it is our choices that dictate our morality and I… I have chosen murder and evil."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""As have I," she replied instantly, and he looked up again in surprise. "Because I have chosen you." She spoke firmly, but a girlish flush colored her cheeks and her eyelids fluttered down. "You told me once that you knew that I wanted you. When exactly do you theorize that that fact changed?"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""I did not say…"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""You did not ask," she corrected, and the flush was now one of anger, but her voice was still calm. "You argue that your choices are bad, that they are dangerous, yet you try to make mine for me? Let me make a choice for both of us, if I am so good at choosing. You do not choose my happiness. That is your sin, that you tried."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""Your happiness," he struggled, wrestling with the new ideas she was giving him. "Is what I am fighting for…"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""My happiness!" she exclaimed, springing up from the couch and rounding on him. "What an interesting concept! What am I supposed to do, Wolfgang? Go out and find another man to fall in love with? You are part of my mind, you are my dreams, my thoughts. I spill into your life daily, I taste your coffee, I feel the coarseness of your sheets, I smell your scent! I cannot remove you from my life, I can never be free of you, I cannot walk away! It may not be your preference, but there is no way to spare my feelings. We are bound together now!"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Her tears were back now, burning red at the corners of her vision, but they vanished as she saw him look up with a calm smile. She choked and stepped back, but he stood slowly and moved towards her. "You think my sheets are coarse?"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""They are…" she stammered. "They are not as soft as they could be."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""Berlin is cold," he tossed the idea aside casually. "But how do you know what my sheets feel like?"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""I…" she looked down sideways and straightened her shoulders with dignity, a gesture that only broadened his smile. "I visited you one night when you were asleep. As you did to me."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""Hmmm. Was this visit intentional?"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"She looked up with scandal in her eyes. "It was not!"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""And you appeared in my bed?"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""I appeared by your window!" she had backed into a wall now, and settled there defiantly. "It was very cold, so, as you were asleep, I joined you in bed. I could not figure out how to go back to my room." She was not a steady liar and her eyes cut sideways./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"He stopped in front of her and crossed his arms. "Did you kiss me?"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Her mouth fell open and she looked at him in shock./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"He smiled and shook his head. "I was not asleep."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"She rested her head against the wall and looked up at him seriously. "I did. Yes, I kissed you. You looked so peaceful and gentle… and I did not know," she lowered her eyes, "whether I would get the chance to kiss you again."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""And you like kissing me?"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"The amount of cockiness he was exuding in his very posture suddenly infuriated her and she pushed off from the wall. "Stop teasing me! Do you think this is a joke? I like…"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"And suddenly he was on her, his hands gentle on her neck but his mouth insistent, pushing eagerly at her lips until her head was back against the wall again, her lips parting, her hands running up his back, grasping at breath and balance at once. He braced his hands on the wall beside her head and leaned down, kissing her in every way he knew how, in every way he had let himself imagine, letting himself explore her face and glorying in her eagerness, in her evident want of him. He kissed her for a long time and neither of them heard the conversation on the other side of that wall stop abruptly as the other six Sensates halted wide-eyed and then cast knowing glances at one another. Finally he pulled back, cupping her face and leaning their foreheads together. "All you have to do is ask. Always, at any point. If you want my lips, come and ask for them."/p  
/div 


	3. Chapter 3

div class="userstuff module" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; width: 1088.64px; float: none; word-wrap: break-word; color: #2a2a2a;"  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"No one was aware of exactly when Lito and Hernando's luxurious apartment in Mexico City had become their official hangout. Perhaps it was the nearly perpetual sunshine and vibrant energy of the city. More than likely it had something to do with Hernando's incredible hospitality and god-like abilities in the kitchen. Hernando suspected some of it was just to support him. Ever since Lito had officially come out, both he and his boyfriend had been receiving both physical and virtual hatred from men and women all around the world. Not all of the reactions were bad, but there was enough venom to keep Hernando, used to staying out of the spotlight, somewhat more somber than he had been in earlier days./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Lito continued working on the films he had in progress and his agent remained hopeful that his career might actually end up getting a boost from the news, or at least weather the storm mostly intact. However, this meant that there were many nights when Hernando came home to empty rooms, and the cluster was immensely helpful at filling the void. Nomi and Amanita, already eager to be out of the country, had ended up taking a Mexican "vacation" of unspecified duration (Amanita liked to call it their "vague-cation")./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"In an attempt to get all the help she could from the cluster, Riley had flown the unconscious Will to Mexico as well, staying in a small hotel at a discreet distance from the others as Will drifted in and out of consciousness, exercising the mind tricks Jonas and Angelica were gradually teaching him to protect his mind from Whispers. As he grew stronger, he was more able to join the others at the dinners that started sporadic but soon became quite regular./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Capheus had been hugely helpful in Will's rehabilitation. Will's first vision of Angelica happened while he was unconscious, and he woke up shouting for a drug she had apparently used to shield her own mind from Whispers before birthing them. Capheus, flush with cash and new connections, was able to supply the suppressant, as well as medicine for his mother and plane tickets which brought him to Mexico every other week, at first to check on Will, and then to revel in his ability to stand side by side with the members of his cluster./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Sun was a difficulty. At the moment, she was still only able to visit mentally, but she spent long hours relaxing in Lito's apartment, speaking softly to whoever was available to "host" her./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Kala eventually joined them as well. After the murder of her potential father-in-law, no one in her family was particularly surprised to hear of her broken engagement. Many whispered that the union was clearly disapproved of by the gods after the death and after Kala's own unaccountable passing out on the day of her wedding. But to her own beloved family, Kala told the truth, or a version of it. Wolfgang she did not mention, but she explained that she had not been in love with her groom and had only been following family wishes. Her family bore it well, far too well, she often thought. If they had shouted with frustration, blamed her, or even shed disappointed tears in front of her she would have felt more at ease, but as it was they just looked hurt and largely left her alone. She found a work excuse, a few weeks later, to end up in Mexico City, and her heart began healing much more quickly in time spent with her cluster family./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Except for the one night he had felt her pain and visited her, Wolfgang did not allow himself to be alone with Kala. He too had needed to leave the country for a while, leaving Felix in the hands of a good doctor and flying to join his cluster. No one asked where he had obtained the funds for this. Capheus and Lito had both privately offered to assist him, but he had casually refused. Now that many in his city began to guess that he was both the true breaker of the SD safe and the killer of his remaining family, it was unlikely that he should ever want for work among the German criminal underground. His reputation surged, and even in Mexico, he spent a lot of time muttering covertly into various burner cell phones./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"But he did not speak to Kala. If she ever approached him during a gathering, he quietly removed himself from the group and moved on. If she continued to pursue, he made his farewells and left. She did not try this after the first time, but her warm eyes rested on him many times during every evening that they spent together, and his eyes followed her far more subtly when they could./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Will was the first to get fed up with their circling. He spoke about it with Lito one night, since Lito had quickly become the one Wolfgang was closest to. The quiet, intense German and the dramatic Mexican spent a lot of time together, Wolfgang often joining the movie star for drinks even on nights when the rest of the cluster did not./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""Seriously, what is his deal?" Will exclaimed to Lito at the first "cluster night" when Wolfgang attended. The cop and the movie star stood slightly apart out on the balcony, sipping Hernando's incredible mint margaritas and listening to the hum of traffic below. "I guess I thought if he came back, he would be coming to talk to her, but he just avoids her."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Lito puckered his mouth and looked inside to where Wolfgang huddled carefully in the kitchen, watching Hernando cut up sprigs of mint to drape over the rims of the glasses. "Our German is very proud, Will," he pointed out with a slight shrug. "He made his decision weeks ago when he entered his uncle's house and brought her with him. For him a decision made is final."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""Well he needs to get over it," Will said with determination. "He can tell just as much as the rest of us how hurt and embarrassed she is by this. He needs to talk to her, and soon."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Lito smiled and looked with affection at the fierce look in Will's eyes. "It is very simple for you, isn't it? Right and wrong. Black and white. For Wolfgang, in this moment," he spread his expressive hands wide, "these things are very unclear. He is hurting Kala, but he thinks he is protecting her too. Maybe he is. Who are we to say?"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Will growled into his glass. "We are the people who can read their minds, that's who we are. He doesn't have the right to decide how safe her world will be. That is her decision."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"-/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"A few days later, Wolfgang and Kala had their conversation. Much as Wolfgang had assumed it would, the moment got slightly out of his control, ending with his hands pressed to the wall and his mouth on hers. "All you have to do is ask. Always, at any point. If you want my lips, come and ask for them./p  
/div 


End file.
